The weather call

You will have to make this call at six in the morning, in the dark, half awake, on behalf of other people's children. Make it easy on yourself by deciding the rule in advance. It is one of the handful of things worth settling before the first ride rather than during the first bad week, and the guide to starting a bike bus has the rest of them.

One workable rule: ride in rain, do not ride on ice, do not ride in lightning, do not ride when the air quality is bad. Yours can be stricter, and should be if your route or your youngest rider calls for it. On the air quality one, name a number rather than a vibe, because a vibe is what you are least able to judge at six in the morning.

The rule matters less than the two things around it.

The first is that the rule is written down where families can read it without asking. A parent deciding on Thursday night whether to get the bikes out of the shed should not have to message anyone.

The second is the deadline. Post the call by a time, every week, and hold to it. If your group knows the answer lands by 6:15, they can plan. If it sometimes lands at 6:45, everybody drives, including on the mornings you were going to ride.

A cancellation posted early is a service. A cancellation posted late is worse than riding in the rain, because it wasted the morning of every family who was ready to go.